Concerned about WAL-MART's impact on our world, I decided to infiltrate my local Supercenter in an effort to better understand the company and especially the conditions faced by its workers. In the months since I have truly learned what it is like to be a low-wage associate inside this retailing goliath (hint: it's not particularly pleasant...) This is the story of the working poor, which hopefully will inspire us as consumers to seek change by boycotting WAL-MART.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Struggling in the Service Economy

As I entered the forth month of my tenure in the store, the toll of the job was beginning to show. I was tired and that long trudge across the parking lot to the main doors was becoming more difficult by the day. It was now a struggle to find the energy to strike up conversations in the break room and keep up with my journal entries like I had when I first started working at the store. On the job, I felt like I had become a different person, and not exactly a change for the better. No longer did I appreciate my interactions with people, instead I had become aloof and almost standoffish with customers. Believe it or not, I couldn’t help but bring the job home with me. Friends who called late at night would be horrified when I groggily reverted back to my nightmare of doing returns at WAL-MART. All of this and I didn’t even have the economic worries that my co-workers had to grapple with.

In the best of times, it was difficult to make ends meet with WAL-MART’s wages… and these were hardly the best of times. Despite our President’s rosy forecasts, where I was the economy wasn’t doing us any favors. For countless employees, WAL-MART marked their first venture into retail after jobs dried up in manufacturing, construction, and even the high tech field. A close friend of mine had this happen after his business doing contract plumbing and electrical work petered out during a lull in the economy; now he found himself getting poorer by the month after whittling through all of his savings. Some workers would try to garner the needed extra income by picking up a second job, whether it be in fast-food restaurants or freelance positions. On top of this, high prices at the pump and for heating oil hit the working poor particularly hard. There were many associates like myself who commuted an hour roundtrip every day, not to mention the CSM who bemoaned the fact that she would have to sell her few shares of stock in order to pay for oil, again. For several friends I watched personal problems – from mysterious illnesses to car troubles – completely disrupt this tight-rope act, throwing them into desperate straits. It was into this environment that H&R Block set-up shop immediately after Christmas, ushering in WAL-MART's self-proclaimed "Tax Season." Associates and customers alike would readily sign on for their "Instant Money Refund Anticipation Loans," knowing it was a scam, but being too desperate to care.

This bleak picture became even more clear on payday, when I would get to cash the paychecks of many of my co-workers (a huge perk of working at the service desk.) Obviously the total on the check doesn’t tell the whole picture of how many hours were worked, and these are probably some of the worst off since they may not have a bank and generally need to cash the check immediately. Nevertheless, taken as a whole, these pitiful sums can be instructive. Consider the examples gathered over two paydays: $248, 321, 343, 344, 363, 388, 418, 442, 445, 502, 508, 558, 616, 873, 925. Average these together and you get $486.27 in net earnings for two weeks of work. Annually this works out to $12,643, well below the 2005 federal poverty line of $16,090 for a family of three. Strickingly similarly sums would come in from our fellow big-box neighbors in the mall, like Home Depot, Michael’s, and Kohl’s. No, my personal struggles with this project could not compare to the real ones faced by retail workers every day.

36 comments:

Just read your entire blog. Fantastic! Good luck in the future. I'm a teacher who just gave her resignation notice for next year. I wish I had been as brave when I was your age. I finally said that the 12 hour days are over. I'm going to write the chairman of the board at Walmart about the poor quality of the Walmart brand merchandise. Do you think that the student whose pen didn't work (Walmart's brand) is going to shop at Walmart for school supplies for their children? MAY ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE. THE FUTURE IS FOR PEOPLE LIKE YOU WHO SHOW NO FEAR.Zebe

These Mainers are very articulate and deceptively coy in their amazing lexicon of words, facts and parodies to pull from. You colored me informed. I felt the sway of your majestic progeny of good will and arguments. I went to Bates up in Maine and first began comparing our "bubble" to that of Walmart's in my early years there, and learned that while both were corrupt (by virtue of being a bubble) they had their nice corners, too. Walmart is a discount store, and I think that both the customer, and the employee/r tend to overlook that. Do we really need to hold our economic heavywheight up to such high standards? Yes, but without the criticism which I think you strived away from eloquently enough. Most people (myself included) sink to a level of deception and mockery befitting of any Walmart, all the time and so now we can make Walmart the scapegoat. Human nature, I get it, but how come the bane of our exhistance has become a relatively good natured discount store. Complacency can't and will not get the best of us. Ours is a nation of aristocratic democracies deciding the plight of suffering anymore, where Walmart has wedged itself in between two sides of an epic battle for freedom. A default establishment for college students which may be the single most corrupt institution of all with regard to equal rights or lack their of, we exhist to make the customer happy; so where went our priorities? I submit that we can strive as clusters of communities to make Walmart a better and more profitable place for intelligible students of earnest just as its forebearers set out to do, thereby giving it the family feel it so desparately strives for, through years of diligence just as our fair weather friend from the North is doing. But for now let it be just a store despite its size or measure of good will and nature. I have a feeling Walmart is going to be around for a long time to come. We might as well treat it with some equal parts respect and candor. It's not going away and neither are you, so we must coexhist. peace,Kristopher

Good for You on this blog!! It's sooo true! My sister in law was wrongfully fired days before she was fully vested in her stock, having worked there for 7 years. I just began as an overnight stock person to raise cash for an upcoming trip. Last week I LOL at the cbl's. How long do you think I could wear a boycott walmart pin before they noticed?

I have worked for Walmart for about 19 years now and I think it is a fantastic place to work. My co-workers are great and when I had a death in my family recently, the store sent items to my house because we had a lot of company. I can't imagine working somewhere else.

hi iam a associate at walmart... and i really can not believe the bogus comments that all of these associates are making... you talk about being poor ..well you know that our economy and job status are going over seas.. so just keep trying to convence customers not to shop at walmart. then what are you going to say when millions of people dont have a job!!ya im not saying that you didnt have a rough time working for this company.but maybe everybody does not experince the bad in the company.alot of retail companies have a large turnover.hell a little smalltown grocery store where i was employed for almost ten years had large turnover just about every three mts .and you would not believe what they did to me when i left.all in all the walmart where i work is great not only there associates but with there customers...

I worked for the warehouse for over 15 year's and was injured in an accident. And of course there is not any work for me. And they will not even bother trying to help me find another postion with the company. I told them I would be willing to go to a store, another distribtion center, another state. Any thing not to give up almost 16 year's with the company. But I am of no value to them with a disability....HOWEVER,They do make exception's for the people they want. Make up special job's for them, Hire the Manager's wife right off the street in the personel office. Bottom Line, I hope this never happen's to anyone else. I don't know how some of these people can sleep at night. Thank's Lee Scott

I have never seen anyone brought in to WalMart and forced to work there. If you are unemployable anywhere else at least you can get on at WalMart. Too bad you didn't lose that chip on your shoulder while you were there. If you wanted higher wages maybe you should have tried Macy's or The Bon, oh wait, they wouldn't have hired you and wouldn't have paid any more than WalMart for an entry level job anyway.

I've never worked at WalMart, I was a highly paid computer engineer. Maybe you should get an education also, it does wonders for your job prospects. At least entry level people can work somewhere, and at WalMart you usually get over minimum wage. Believe it or not some people like working there and do it happily.

As long as people demand discount stores there will be WalMarts. If you want really cheap crap go to your nearest Dollar store, while you are there ask them if they get any more than minimum wage. Maybe that guy flipping burgers or pumping gas would like to tell you about all their benefits and high wages.

Josh, sorry about your bad experience. My husband has been in management for WM for over 10 years and finally had to open door a very serious situation that had not been resolved otherwise. He really hated to do it but he just had no choice. There were coachings involved. Let me tell you...do not believe that retaliation does not exist. My husband's life has been living hell since he used the "Open Door" This certainly is no option for management! Vengence is mine saith the Lord but HR is going to put a knife thru your back and twist it first. Never, EVER, trust Human Resources--THEY ARE THE DEVIL INCARNATE

Josh;Great blog. I wish I had found you when I was working on my documentary Wal-Mart Nation. It's been very successful in Canada and now we're releasing it on DVD in the US. I hope you'll add my web site:walmartnation.comto your links page and if you send me your address to:andrew@walmartnation.com I'll send you a DVD.Best,Andrew Munger

hi, i have been employed at walmart going on 15 years. i was told last year during my evaluation that the following year i would be capped out and that their would be no more raises. i could be moved to different positions etc., all the while making the same pay. so in other words, no matter if i continued to work 1 year or 15 more years, no more increases. well that just sucks! i have seen walmart hire new male employees and witnessed them brag about their starting pay. keep in mind it was more than i was making after being here 15 years. i was involved during the years of "working off the clock", being locked inside the store after closing time to zone, and not being allowed to go home after closing sometimes till 3,4,or 5 in the morning. then being on the schedule the next day at 9 or 10am.i witnessed the floor crew being from other countries and they couldn't even speak english. this was during a time when they stated that we hired contractors to bring in maint. crews and had nothing to do with the hiring of outsiders. all lies. i have seen so much favortism between store managers and associates. these associates were "pets" and always got the most in wages and never had to do much of anything. and heaven forbid you should ask for help with issues within your department. use the open door policy and see just what happens. i can grant you that what you discussed in private with mgmt. will be all over the store within the hour. assistants managers are supposed to support dept. managers and let them run their dept., right? no, they would come into your area with a" holier than thou" attitude and start bossing you around. telling you everything that you had managed to sign, fill or put on a stack base was all wrong. then you had to turn around and re-do everything, till the next manager or store manager came along and told you thats not the way they wanted it done. enough to drive you insane!!if youre a dept. mgr. don't report on one of your associates within your dept. you will not receive one bit of back-up only false promises that they will handle the situation. which they don't, it only gets worse and worse. i have had more than enough. i will be giving my notice in two days...

Though I realize this thing is quite old, I feel compelled to comment nonetheless.

To the people on here bitching about how employees aren't forced to work for Walmart or other retailers: Having a pitiful wage is better than not having one at all, and if they don't yet have the experience or education they need to move on to something better, then they are indeed 'forced' to turn to lesser options, until another door opens for them, which can undeniably take a long damn time depending on various circumstances.

The 'they pay more than minimum wage' argument isn't valid unless the wage they pay is livable. Minimum is NOT livable. I work at Target, and I have a friend who works at Walmart, and if either of us worked full-time at our jobs it would be nearly impossible to scrape by and survive, let alone save up for a decent home, vehicle, and education. If I didn't have family to stay with--and it's never safe to blindly assume that everyone has that option, by the way--then I would have to drop out of college entirely and work myself dead just to have a studio apartment and a very cheap used vehicle.

So no, not everyone has the time or money to work full-time and pay for school, on top of possibly having a family to raise. Any corporation that calls their wage fair or decent, yet refuses to pay enough for a person to even support themselves or their families, is full of shit. It is a problem that needs to be rectified, and complacency on our part along with the "just deal with it" attitude will NOT improve the situation, it will only morph into a bigger monster until it explodes in our faces in the form of more taxes to support the people who don't make a livable wage, who can't support themselves, and that's just one effect.

It's not just teenagers who have these low-paying jobs, as I'm sure you all know by now. In fact, a lot of the people I see in retail tend to be adults. Good people, with families, who are part of corporations that do all they can to cut corners with these people. It's not morally right, nor is it in any way fair, and people at the top can still make far more money than they need while enabling their employees to actually survive above the poverty level.

My raise a few weeks ago was 6 lousy cents. Many people didn't even get that much. So don't bullshit us about fair wages, or livable wages, or corporations being fair. They're not.

http://www.universallivingwage.org/

This is just for Vermont apparently, but it's quite informative nonetheless: http://www.vtlivablewage.org/faqs2.html

Obviously you have something personal to gain by blogging your views. Nobody was holding a gun to your head and forcing you to work there. If you, or anyone else is unhappy with your lives, then it was brought on yourselves. If you aren't happy working at Walmart, go someplace else. Get a life already!

Gee, Josh, as someone who went looking for a job here recently, as bad as you think Walmart is, they offered me BETTER than minimum wage. You know what Target offered me? Less than minimum wage! I know, is THAT even legal? And to boot, Target was interviewing me for a job, that at the end of the interview process, the head manager confessed DID NOT exist right then. But they hated to pass on my formidable resume. They offered me (his words) "$7-7.25 an hour and maybe 10 hours a week to start" He didn't even know that minimum wage was more than that. OMG! Since I was already on my second interview with Walmart, I asked if I could call him back in a few weeks and work whatever hours I might have available, as I really preferred a FULL TIME POSITION that PAID MORE than minimum wage. WOW! So as much as I appreciate your blog, and you seem to be an intelligent guy, I think you are missing some very real things in the process. Walmart isn't the bad guy. While I know that they have in some places, done some things that weren't legal and weren't right, I don't believe in every case they had the backings of corporate to screw people out of money. I do know that Target's mission is even baser than Walmarts. Talk about the working poor! At least at Walmart, I am starting out well above minimum wage, have many opportunities to advance and am looking forward to seeing for myself, just what they are all about. I will NEVER shop at Target again after this experience, I know that for sure! Do me a favor, Grow a little, and see what the world is all about. Thinking that the corporations of the world are all about the worker and all about advancing their workers into the stratusphere of money, health insurance and 401k benefits is just plain naive and not really how things operate. No one FORCED you into Walmart to work, you went there willingly. No one forced you to stay! I know from the looks of the people I see working there, many of them are lucky to have a JOB, ANY JOB that actually pays. Most of them are coming DIRECTLY off the rolls of our local charities, unemployment office and local food stamp and AFDC offices. They try to hire them first! These are in most communities, what we used to call THE UNEMPLOYABLE! Not that ALL Walmart employees are, just that some have jobs there, simply because that is how Walmart works! I totally support your right to disagree with me, but I can assure you, if some of these people weren't working at Walmart, their circumstances would be much, much worse than they are presently. It is a sad fact of life, crack your Bible, the poor shall always be among us. Doesn't mean we should turn our heads from it, but look for solutions. Keep trying, I think you might have some good ideas, but singling Walmart out as the bad guy, is well, short sighted and narrowing your vision. There are plenty of other companies flying under the radar that are doing MUCH WORSE. What we have is a whole world of corporate short sightedness. We could learn a lot from the Ford company. Ford knew that if he paid his workers a living wage, they could also be a good paying customer of Ford Motor company. So with that Josh, I bid you ADIEU and hope you have the tenacity to delve deeper into this pit and come up with something more than words to fill up the internet with. Good luck!

I WORK FOR WALMART 10 YEARS. MANAGEMENTS DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR WORKERS.IT IS SO MUCH FAVORTISM AT MY STORE.I THOUGHT WALMART WAS A FAMILY THING.ALL THEY DO IS USE PEOPLE TO MAKE THEMSELFS LOOK GOOD.TO MANY CHEIFS AND NOT ENOUGH INDIANS.THEY USE ALL THE GOOD WORKERS THAT THEY KNOW THAT WILL GET THE JOB DONE BUT DONT WANT TO PAY THEM A DECENT PAY.AND THE NEW ONES THAT COME IN GET BETTER PAY THAN THE ONES THAT BEEN THERE OVER 10 YEARS AND THEY GET AWAY WITH EVERYTHING. HOW CAN MANAGEMENT EXPECT FOR THE WORKERS TO FOLLOW RULES AND THEY DONT FOLLOW THE RULES.I FEEL THEY SHOULD TREAT EVERYONE EQUAL NOT JUST SOME. SOME PEOPLE COMES TO WALMART TO WORK TO MAKE A LIVING AND DONT GET PAY ENOUGH MONEY TO LIVE ON.AND THEIR ARE SOME JUST COME NOT TO WORK BUT TO STEAL AND THEY GET ALL THE PRAISE.THEY DONT KNOW A GOOD WORKER IF ITS STARE THEM IN THE FACE.WE NEED GOOD MANGEMENTS NOT WORKERS BECAUSE THEY SURE DONT KNOW WHAT THEIR DOING.THE GOOD ONES THEY LET GO BECAUSE THE ARE THE ONES THAT CARE ABOUT THE WORKERS.WALMART DONT WANT THOES KIND OF MANAGERS

Sam would not be happy with the greed and lack of compassion this cold hearted corporate cancer has become. The executives will have to answer for thier selfish deeds. Everyone that works at my store is unhappy and underpaid. I don't hide anything for them, I tell customers how it really is...they don't care. Bless you for being honest about Walmart.

Wow dude, a 23 year old has it all figured out. My wife has worked at WM for twenty years, makes $17.35/hr and works 7am to 4pm and she is not a manager. Oh yeah, her starting pay was $5.00/hr. She just came to work everyday and busted her butt while all the whiners stood around. When she leaves the company, we'll have over $150,000 in Wal-Mart contributions to her retirement, so bottom line is you don't know shit. EVERY company in America has the same issues you mentioned somewhere in their company. Maybe you will learn that as you age, or maybe you will join the lifetime whiners that never get anywhere. IF YOU WANT TO GET ANYWHERE IN LIFE, WORK HARD. There, free advice. P.S. - good luck with that political science degree.

I think your blog is great. I'm writing a blog about them right now, and I came across your very informative blog. For the uninformed, Wal-Mart buys from china and other places and that puts AMERICANS out of work, so the only jobs left are at Wal-mart. When Sam Walton died, Wal-mart, as it was, died too.

I worked for Walmart Maple Ontario for two month and honestly I could say that was the worst job I ever did in my life and I am 40 years old. You want to know why.

We were unloading the truck and we were denied breaks for over 6 hours. We were told that unless we finish unloading the truck, we can not take our break. Most of the department manager which I was one of them were over worked and they were doing a two persons job. Most of the worker were abused and since most of the were new immigrant, they did not know their rights. Managers in the back room were screaming at each other. No respect or dignity. Walmart is a poisonest environment with a daily abuse.

I was sick to my stomach and I am being honest after two month. I finally quiet without notice. I am so sick of Walmart not only I do not shop there but I can’t stand the Walmart advertisement. So from 0 to 10 I give Walmart -10 for the worest place I ever work.

I work at wal-mart and for the MOST part it is not a bad place to work if you are a sales associate, but can't say the same for the Dept. Managers who remind me of little slaves. They have to do so much work and I doubt they get paid well. I don't like how some of the Dept. Managers and even Assistant Managers/ZMS's treat their associates. More respect and kindness would be appreciated. But all in all...it's not too bad for a retail job and I have worked only in retail so I know what I'm talking about.

I worked for walmart for 9 months, worst place I ever worked at. you can be fired for anything which I was. A customer made a complaint over nothing and I was let go because they told me they can't afford to loose 1 customer, with all the money they make that seems unlikely. The managers think they know everything which most are ignorant and barely graduated high school. If you want to be a slave, get a job there.

I worked for Wal-Mart for two and a half years in the late 1990s'. All of the same illegal practices continue. The most serious I ever personally heard about was the locking of the door until the store was zoned, the legal definition of that is "being held hostage" or "kidnapping", I would have gone to the nearest phone and called the police, the local newspaper, CNN, The Tonight Show, David Letterman, and of course Corporate Headquarters. Granted I would have been unemployed the next day! Corporations are taking away the rights of the workers and rewarding the CEOs with millions and the workers are the ones responsable for the success of the corporations. I have heard all my life about history repeating itself, well workers of America it is time to rise up and say enough is enough. If your company says they don't tolerate bad managers, report them to corporate headquarters. Send letters about their behavior, report them to national reporting services, do it over and over again until that person is stopped! The workers I worked with at Wal-Mart were reliable, hardworking people who just wanted to do their job. Unfortunately some members of management are just blinded by the power. I knew it was time for me to go when I was disciplined for getting over-time. I was told I had a time management problem and Wal-Mart does not pay over-time. I told him I was unable to leave at the scheduled time and he explained I was to take a longer lunch and "shave off" any time I would be over. I made the mistake, or spoke out of frustration, and said I was not the one with the time management problem, if enough cashiers were scheduled everyone would have time to zone their area and we all could leave at our scheduled time. Followed by "scheduling is not rocket science"! Yes, I knew my career with the company was over because I spoke the truth. The next day I was suprised to still have a job, but being the good employee I took a three hour lunch so I would not get the dreaded over-time! Bring back how Sam Walton treated his employees!

I feel your pain as the anonymous cart pusher of Walmart, they STILL treat their employees like total trash. I hate getting out at 12:00 midnight just to return to work at 7:00 am to push carts by myself without back up! For first 6 hours of my shift until co-workers comes to push carts on a VERY busy weekends! The worst of it all we get NO healthcare benefits at all, we ONLY get 10% discounts on certain products (NOT FOOD) Which I was really disappointed. Those CBLs don't do nothing and it's just a waste of time! (I skipped through all of them.)

It's time to Occupy Walmart and demand for a union, adequate healthcare, fair reasonable pay and flexible schedules! Because many of us that STILL work at Walmart is sick and tired of the abuse from the CEO and execs that are on top of the pyramid! No wonder Occupy Movement started almost last year at Wall Street!

HI,I am extremely impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout on your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself? Anyway keep up the excellent quality writing, it’s rare to see a great blog like this one these days..Regards:

I blog frequently and I really appreciate your information. Your article has really peaked my interest. I will book mark your blog and keep checking for new details about once a week. I opted in for your RSS feed too.

You've obviously never had someone scream in your face so much that the customers TWO registers down called the police on your behalf...that sir is our point, there IS no peace , coexistence requires compromise...on BOTH sides..the word you used is " we " but the problem here is that wal mart refuses this on all levels..When our economy was better, wal mart was yes, a temporary job for college students...going to college to earn a degree to get a better job...However most of these students soon found after graduating, as well as many people with long standing careers, that due to the economy these jobs that they have been studying for and working in, no longer exist...For a lot of these people wal mart is not merely a discount store, but their source of income, of putting food on the table...College educated or not , money has to be made somehow . But to a HUGE extent wal mart takes advantage of that fact. The fact that even the guy with the architectural degree has nowhere to go if there aren't any architectural jobs, therefore has no choice but to deal with whatever wal mart hands out if he wants to feed his family..I've worked for wal mart a good while, and trust me I've seen the change, when it WAS nothing but college students, people who were on their way up and out, wal mart was a whole lot nicer and respectful to it's employees...Now, they smell desperation and with jobs being scarce, know all too well what they can get away with...Similarly the majority of customers behave in the same manner...they are like children..they push to see what their limitations are and what will or won't get them what they want..if stomping their feet and yelling like lunatics will get it for them THIS time, what do you think they'll do the next time they come in ? And it's not the administration, not management who has to deal with these things...it's the worker who can't say anything back , because they need their job..customers, employers , people in general seem to be a WHOLE lot more accommodating when they know the person they are dealing with doesn't NEED what they have, when they know that person has options...Let them sense that desperation though and It gets ridiculous..I don't work for wal mart anymore thank goodness, but I did up until a month ago, and no lie they are so cheap , ignorant and uncaring of what their employees need, even to do their jobs, that they are locking up our pens and highlighters and rationing them out like we're at war. Good will and Good nature died with the birth of the superstore...In fact it's probably buried under the foundation in Bentonville.